Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup completed on Monday and detained state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s civilian leader, along with members of her party.
An army-run television station declared that the military, headed by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has taken control of the country. Residents headed to grocery stores to stock up on food and withdrew cash from ATM’s amid the announcement, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The coup comes after Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won elections in November 2020 by a landslide.
“It’s a country with dozens of warring armies, hundreds of militia, a $70 billion illicit-drug industry, tens of millions that have fallen into poverty because of the economic downturn this past year, and now a collapse of whatever understanding there had been between the army and the National League for Democracy, the two most important political forces in Myanmar,” historian Thant Myint-U told the Journal. “I think the outside world often failed to see how fragile Myanmar’s democracy transition was.”
The coup could end a decade-long experiment with transition to democracy in Myanmar. In 2010 the military released Suu Kyi from house arrest, and her party received massive support in Myanmar’s first open elections in 2015. The U.S. loosened economic sanctions against Myanmar in return for its transition.
However, the military has remained a powerful force in Myanmar politics, and has been accused of war crimes, mass rape, and ethnic cleansing after driving tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh. Suu Kyi was criticized in Western nations for her apparent unwillingness to criticize the military its attacks on Rohingya refugees.